Northern Lights watch from the floating snowflake hotel

Set to be built in Tromso in Norway, Krystall will be a glass-roofed floating hotel wedged between two fjords

Travellers who dream of seeing the Northern Lights will have the opportunity to do from a glass-roofed, snowflake-shaped floating hotel come 2017.

Developed by Dutch Docklands, a company that specialises in the construction of floating structures, the Krystall hotel will be a luxury property stationed between fjords near Tromso in northern Norway. In the Arctic Circle, the city is one of the best places in the world from which to see the Northern Lights.

Construction of the 86-bedroom hotel is expected to start in mid-2015, with the hotel due to open about 18 months later. It will be built in sections in a wharf and towed into position. Inspired in part by the floating houses already in the Netherlands, the property will be built with a concrete base and tethered with cables to the adjacent fjords. The lack of firm foundations mean the complete structure could sway from between six to 10 feet to each side of its epicentre but guests should be oblivious to these gradual shifts in position.

In addition to observing the Northern Lights, guests will have access to the expected attributes of a five-star hotel. Krystall will be managed by a luxury hotel group, although Dutch Docklands has yet to confirm which hospitality group is backing the project or how much it is expected to cost. Addressing the latter issue, Koen Olthuis, creative director of Dutch Docklands design affiliate Waterstudio, said its development costs have been budgeted as “almost the same as a land-based hotel of this type, but with an additional 15 per cent increase to cover the cost of the floating foundation.”

The development of a luxury hotel in Norway’s Arctic region is an unusual occurrence, and it is Krystall’s limited impact on the local landscape that has allowed its construction to go ahead. The hotel is marketed by Waterstudio as a “scarless development” that can be removed in the future without any long-term visual impact to the locality in which it was placed.